Long-life chopsticks?

17 August 2010

According to this piece in the Los Angeles Times, Greenpeace China estimates that 100 acres of trees need to be felled every 24 hours to keep up with Chinese demand for disposable chopsticks. The article says the Chinese government is so concerned at the waste that it’s trying to clamp down on their use – although with little effect so far. As anyone who has lived in China will know, many Chinese people are becoming obsessed with hygiene – it’s one of the reasons that middle-class parents prefer buying their children packaged snacks in Walmart to old-fashioned street snacks sold by itinerant vendors. Now that everyone expects restaurants to supply either disposable chopsticks (made of wood or bamboo) or those that have been properly sterilised, it’s hard to go back to the old days when many small eateries would simply have a potful of reusable wooden chopsticks on each table.

Perhaps the solution is to revive the old Manchu and Mongolian habit of carrying around a personal set of chopsticks and other implements. The one pictured on left and right, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, is a rather fine ornament that can be attached to a belt, and it contains not only a pair of bone chopsticks, a knife and a file for sharpening, but also (not pictured) a tiny bone toothpick and an ear scoop! Of course the set pictured is rather elaborate and unnecessarily heavy, but imagine a funky, well-designed set of chopsticks in a little holder you could slip into your handbag… (Actually, I remember on my very first trip to China, and indeed to Asia at all, I carried round my own pair of plastic chopsticks because I was paranoid about hygiene, and just rinsed them after use.)

And talking of reusing things rather than chucking them away, every time I see people drinking coffee out of those incredibly wasteful cardboard cups with plastic tops, I remember a restaurant kitchen in Shaoxing where every chef had a metal tea mug which was stored on a shelved labelled with everyone’s names (see picture below). Why don’t we all do this in our offices?

(P.S. thanks to @taniabranigan and @raykwong for drawing my attention to the LA Times piece on Twitter…)

16 Responses to “Long-life chopsticks?”

We’re big on the re-using things. These “keepcups” are popping up everywhere in Australia and I love mine – feels weird on the odd occasion I buy a coffee and don’t have it with me. (No connection, just a happy customer.)

During my 6 years in Japan I carried chopsticks with me everywhere, including on my near-monthly trips to work and visit my mother China.

In Japan, although more and more people are favouring bringing their own chopsticks, it is still far from common. However, when I would pull my chopsticks out of my bag in China people looked at me like I was a crazy person!

Interesting post – some restaurants I used to eat at in China had both disposable and reusable chopsticks available for you to choose, but put a sign on the disposable chopsticks bin saying something like “did you know 40 trillion pairs of disposable chopsticks are used every year” in an attempt to change peoples minds. 100 acres of trees per day is a ridiculous number, though.

Disposable chopsticks are pretty similar to plastic forks and paper cups. Not only are they an environmental disaster, for anything but instant noodles, I prefer proper cutlery.
This german supplier has a wide range of chopsticks, including several folded ones: http://bit.ly/bMouQT
Plus, they deliver worldwide.
Btw, I’m using both your cookbooks on a daily basis and I’m currently enjoying SHARK’S FIN. Great read.

When I was in China, I always used to carry a pair of chopsticks around. Not so much for hygenie reasons, more because I thought it was an awful waste when you eat out in cheap places and almost always be offered cheap horrible disposable chopsticks. There is obviously the environmental impact, as well as the fact that disposable chopsticks are not nice. They generally break into much smaller slivers and make it harder to eat. I’d always get people asking why this 老外 was using his own chopsticks and then I’d explain about the environmental impact. In restaurants where non disposable chopsticks were provided, I’d use them.

If you live in Southern California, 99 Ranch market carries stainless steel chopsticks that needs to be screwed on (about 8 inches in length), and about 4 inches broken down. You can also buy stainless Chinese soup spoons or a 6 inch spoon. It comes with a bag too. All for about $9.00

The stainless mug with lid, is about $5.00.

And if you need ones that are plastic, any Japanese market will have those with a holder for about $4.00 – $6.00